Torque
by Drowningblonde
Summary: The investigation into Vince's accidental death leads to as many questions as it answers. Adult themes, concepts and language.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Voltron/Go Lion or any of their characters. They are the property of WEP and Devil's Due Comics and Toei Animation. All other characters are mine. This is written purely for entertainment purposes and I am not monetarily compensated in any way.**

A/N: This is my first attempt at horror and gore. I hope it's sufficiently disgusting.

**Torque**

"So, have you talked to Lance yet? How's he doing?" Pidge asked Hunk in a low voice, fiddling with the game control in his lap absent mindedly. The holo screen cycled through the intro sequence in silence and 'Press start to begin' flashed repeatedly on the screen. Pidge barely noticed he wasn't in the mood for games right now.

"Yeah…this morning. He's got to deliver his official report to the inquest committee this afternoon." Hunk answered and tossed his controller aside as he got up off the couch to get another beer from the fridge in his workshop. He brought one back for Pidge. "I can't even imagine what that looked like. He said it was on the floor next to him…still going, kind of rolling back and forth."

Pidge shuddered and felt his throat constrict. "Nasty. Gorma says there's no way to reattach it…it was all mashed up in there…They have send it back with him in bag."

"I never should have let him go down there and work alone. He said he was working on upgrades for the voltcoms." Hunk said shaking his head. "I should have known better than to let him borrow my hydraulic equipment. Why would he need that for a fucking voltcom? He's computer geek, not gear head…no offense buddy."

"None taken." Pidge answered. Hunk was right. While Pidge could program a computer to do almost anything or hack into any system in the galaxy, the nuts and bolts hands on creation of mechanical engineering was not his forte. It took more than an understanding of upper level math to take a design from the drawing board to functioning reality. "You shouldn't blame yourself. How could you know…how could anybody know what he was building…?"

"One person did." Hunk replied tersely.

"Yep, they sure did." Pidge asked. Keith had confiscated Daniel's comm immediately after Vince had been found.

"I was starting to wonder why those two had been spending so much time down there. Have you finished checking Daniel's comm?" Hunk asked.

"Yep. Unfortunately. Same as Vince's…except more Larmina. Try unseeing that." He frowned. It was so wrong. Now he had the provocative images he'd been forced to view of the young woman popping back in his head at random.

Even before he'd hacked in the system he knew what he'd find. The same or even more of the disturbing images they had found on Vince's. He had foolishly hoped he'd be wrong that Daniel would somehow not be involved. But he also knew Daniel; there was no chance in hell that he wasn't up to his ass in this.

Thankfully, it had been Lance that noticed them before anyone else could see them. The visual on Vince's holo screen was cued up to the last frame of a video of Allura showering. Apparently, Vince had been watching it when the 'accident' had happened. Lance had shut it down before the medical response team had arrived and tagged it as classified information. Only people with a top secret clearance could access the contents. Otherwise the rumors and images would have gone viral throughout the Denubian by now. As it was, the official press release only stated that Vince had died in a training accident from causes yet to be determined by an ongoing investigation.

Pidge had examined the hard drive himself. He had found literally hundreds of voyeuristic images and videos of Allura and Larmina in various states of undress. He had had to shut it off and recover himself when he first found them; they had made him feel sick. Not that the images were themselves particularly awful, most were quite tame by pornography standards. But just the idea of it…the invasion and violation of their privacy and persons…from someone that they had trusted with their lives was what repulsed him.

When he had shown Keith the full magnitude of what he had found, the commander of the Voltron force's response had disturbed him as well. Keith had laughed. Not in a shocked, surprised or rueful way. But menacingly with a hint of genuine amusement. He had laughed and said "Well, that's Karma for you, huh? Fucking little freak got what he deserved. Do you think I should put this in my letter to his mommy? Oh, and you better check that other little freak's comm unit too. God help him if he's got so much as a thumbnail of the girls. " It was in moments like that Pidge realized how much Keith's years as a fugitive had changed him.

They had all agreed that Allura and Larmina didn't need to know what Pidge had found…not right now anyway. Larmina was still in shock. She had arrived on the scene moments after Lance and the medics. As level headed as she was in air combat simulations and hand to hand fighting, she had never seen a violent death up close. She had rushed in and Lance had tried to stop her from coming close enough to see what had happened. But when she saw the blood everywhere she became hysterical and they were forced to sedate her. They told her it was an accident. A piston that had burst loose and had severed his femoral artery. That Vince had bled out quickly. So fast that he hadn't had time to call for help or feel any real pain. The truth of that statement was highly debatable; they only said it to comfort her.

Hunk's comm unit rang and he picked it up and checked the signature. "It's him." He said and answered it. "Hey, buddy, what's up? Yeah, we're in my work shop…of course I do, come on down." He hung up and took a drink of his beer. "Lance is done giving his statement to the M.E. He wants to know if we want to get wasted."

"Dude, is it bad that I just can't stop being thankful that it wasn't me that went looking for him?" Pidge asked checking the contents of his bottle then draining them. He got up to get another.

"Naw, you know it's bad when Lance pukes." Hunk answered.

The door swished open and Lt. Lance McClain walked in without his customary swagger and leather jacket. It was still at the dry cleaners.

"How'd it go?" Hunk asked.

"Sucked." Lance answered as he made his way directly to an antique wooden tool chest that had been converted into a liquor cabinet. He pulled out a bottle of bourbon and a highball glass and poured himself a strong one.

"Want some ice?" Pidge asked as he was about to close the fridge door.

"Nope." Lance answered and took a deep swallow of the warm liquor. He savored the sweet burn all the way down as it settled in his gut. He walked over and sat down heavily in his customary chair next to the couch and set the bottle on the coffee table with a thunk. He looked at the holo screen with its repetitive 'press start' request and at the discarded game controls on the couch and the floor. "So, uh, I guess no one feels like playing with their joysticks, huh?"

"Ouch! Dude! Really?" Pidge exclaimed.

Hunk just shook his head and grimaced.

"What? Too soon?" Lance asked looking from one to the other.

"Yes, too soon." Hunk answered.

"Whatever." Lance retorted and took another swallow. "How's Larmina? Is she any better?" He asked.

"Not sure, I think she's still resting. Allura's been checking on her." Hunk replied.

Lance nodded. Finding Vince the way he did had been bad enough, but when Larmina had showed up, and the look on her face. She shouldn't have had to see something like that. Ever. He shook his head and drank again.

He had seen plenty of carnage in his day. Bodies blown apart, burned beyond recognition, in various states of decomposition. He had built up a tolerance for it. The Arusian Doomite War with Zarkon and Lotor had been one of the most brutal in both the Terran and the Drule Empire's histories. Near the end it seemed there was no atrocity that either side had left uncommitted. Lance had thought that he had seen everything and nothing could affect him anymore. Even when he had found Vince lying in a pool of his own blood with a gaping wound in his groin he had approached it matter of factly. His mind shifting into combat mode and taking stock of the facts of the situation.

First, assessing if a continued threat existed, and then moving in to aid the casualty. He called security and medical units started to administer first aid immediately. He checked for vital signs and although he found none, he still stripped off his leather jacket and uniform shirt and used the latter to apply pressure to Vince's bloody wound. It was then he noticed the…device lying next to the boy, vibrating strangely with a sort of twisting, undulating motion from the mechanism inside. It was about eight inches long and cylindrical. At first he thought it might be his voltcom, but Vince's voltcom was on his arm. He had looked back at the device and then at the wound and noticed that Vince's trousers were unfastened. The horrific truth of the situation started to occur to him. He glanced up at the work bench and saw a holo projected from Vince's comm. A still image of Allura, naked and glistening wet in the shower, frothy soap bubbles cascading over her breasts as she rinsed the shampoo from her hair. What had happened suddenly became clear and all of his initial sympathy for the boy vanished in an instant. He heard the emergency personal's approach just in time to close down the image before they burst into the room.

And that was when he noticed that Larmina had followed them inside. He had seen the bright auburn of her hair out of the corner of his eye just before he heard her scream. She had seen everything. Everything except the holo. How much she was able to process and make sense of he didn't know. She had rushed forward and he blocked her path. Catching her around the shoulders he tried to stop her from coming closer but she broke free. Ninjas were hard to subdue.

"Vince! Oh my God! What happened?" She had stopped and stared in shock and then he was able to grab her and turn her away. Then her knees buckled and he held her as she bent over and heaved the contents of her stomach onto the floor.

She had buried her face in his chest as the medics rushed Vince to the castle's trauma unit. When they had left she had backed away and looked around. "What's that?" she asked pointing at the still vibrating machine on the floor a few feet away. "It has something in it…"

And indeed it did. The machine's incessant squeezing and pulling had pushed its contents out the other side. Red, pulpy and misshapen there was still no mistaking it for what it was. And that was when Lance lost it. He turned aside and left a puddle of his own vomit right next to hers.

Lance felt his gut tense up again at the memory and took another swallow, sighing as the alcohol began to take effect.

"Where do ya' think he got all those pictures?" Hunk asked.

"He installed cameras in Allura's room and bathroom. He put 'em in Larmina's room too. They've gone in there to disconnect them saying they're fixing some ventilation issue. Keith's pissed. Really pissed. We both think that he's had them up for a while. He must have installed them when I gave him and Danny Boy latrine duty. Fucking little shits." Lance answered. "You finish checking his comm?" He directed his question at Pidge.

"Yep. Unfortunately." Pidge answered. "Allura was bad enough, but Larmina?" Pidge shook his head. "Seriously, how many times did we leave her alone with those two?"

"I know! You think you know people…I mean none of this showed up on their background checks or psych evals." Lance answered.

"So, what do you think Keith is going to do about Daniel?" Hunk asked.

"I'm pretty sure I don't want to know." Lance answered and leaned forward and refilled his glass. "So what do you think happened? With Vince and that thing he made?"

"I'm pretty sure _I_ don't want to know…but if had to guess, I'd say he adjusted the torque too high." Hunk answered and got himself another beer.


End file.
